Wires
by Lysha
Summary: Songfic. 'Wires' by Athlete. When Kaede passed away, Minoru lost his sister and his best friend. What did he do afterwards? May contain some spoilers.


**_Author's Note_: **Hey, everyone! Thanks for checking out this fic. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do (or even if you don't!) please leave a review. It's very much appreciated. Okay, so this songfic is set in Minoru Kokubunji's past, when his sister passed away. But as a not for you all, my Chobits experience has been through the manga books alone, so for those of you that have seen the anime, I don't know if this will be completely correct by your knowledge!

**_DISCLAIMER_: **I don't own Chobits (the manga or the anime) or Minoru, Yuzuki and Kaede (but I wish I could!). I also don't own the song I used for this fic 'Wires'. It is by the band Athlete, and is one of the best songs I know of!

**_Dedication:_** To Dave. Thanks for all of your encouragement over the years.

* * *

**Wires**

Minoru reached out a desperate hand to clutch his sister's, that seemed so weak and frail now. She still looked graceful, for Kaede had always been graceful, and even as she lay, dying in a hospital bed, Minoru could feeling nothing but pure admiration for his elder sister.

"I'm here now, Kaede…" he choked, through his breathlessness. "I'm here…"

_You got wires, going in,  
__You got wires, coming out of your skin_

Minoru tried to keep his eyes away from those wires – those hideous contraptions that the doctors had linked up to Kaede, in order to try and help her recover from her illness. Normally, Minoru would have loved any opportunity to explore these machines further; work out their programming, figure out what level of technology they were running on, think of ways he could develop the visual interface…

Now though, he hated those computers and monitors. They were supposed to be helping his sister… but they weren't. He didn't want to see them at all. All he wanted to see was sister's beautiful face. But as she fixed his eyes upon her, constantly trying to ignore those wires hopelessly piercing her soft white skin, he saw her face looked pained – more so than it had been over the last few weeks, when her illness had suddenly just escalated. But still, she tried to smile, just to try and comfort her brother's worry for her.

_You got tears, making tracks_

On his knees at her bedside, Minoru gripped his sister's ice-cold hands with his, and looked with fear into her dark eyes. They were filled with tears that dripped down her cheeks as she looked back at him, slowly opening and closing her eyes with what looked like some effort. Those tears left trails behind on her cheeks, and made Minoru want nothing more than to see those tears gone. "Minoru… I don't want you to be afraid, but… but I think now is the time…"

_I got tears, that are scared of the facts,_

Minoru shook his head in disbelief, silent tears dropping from his own eyes. "No…" he sobbed, voice barely audible. Another shake of his head, and he cried out, louder this time, "No!"

He bent his head down until the fingertips of Kaede's hand that he still held touched his forehead, weeping hysterically. "Kae… you're going to be okay! You can't go… you can't leave me on my own!"

_Running down corridors through,  
__Automatic doors,  
__Got to get to you,  
__Got to see this through_

He hadn't wanted to leave his sister's bedside, and the first time in two weeks that his father had successfully managed to get him to come home, they were at home for barely an hour before they got a call from the hospital saying that Kaede's condition was looking bleak. Minoru hadn't wanted to believe it, and still didn't, in fact. But the moment that he had heard the news he had raced to the hospital – without even waiting to be driven there – and dashed in a confused rush around the hospital building to Kaede's bedside, where he now was. He felt as though him being there would stop her condition from worsening, and she would be okay. He felt as though he could put air into her lungs and blood into her veins just by being there for her.

Although Kaede had been put into what was supposedly the best hospital in the country, Minoru didn't feel any better about leaving her in there. As far as he could see, they were not doing _anything_ to help her. They were just hooking her up to pointless, ugly computers…

With a weak squeeze on her brother's hand, Kaede let out some quiet words – barely even a breath. "Be strong, Minoru…"

Minoru watched her open her eyes, and close them again once more, in that slow, pained way. It took him a moment to realise that his sister's loving brown eyes would never open again.

_**- - - Two years later - - - **_

Minoru stared through the glass, hands leaving sweaty prints on the pane, and his breath making clouded circles on the surface. At twelve years old, he looked like a child staring through the window of a candy shop. But through the glass, he could not see a shop – he could see his laboratory.

_You got wires, going in,  
__You got wires, coming out of your skin_

In the middle of the room was his most recent creation – another persocom. But this one was not like the others; it was much more powerful, more advanced, and… more dear to him.

Minoru couldn't shake the thoughts away as he looked through the window to see this persocom. If you didn't know any better, you'd have thought that she was a real girl. Or, to be more precise, Minoru's older sister, Kaede.

When Minoru had first seen the persocom in its full form, he felt almost a wave of pride at his work. The persocom was an exact replica of his sister, down to every last detail. But this is not what Minoru thought now, as he peered through the glass. He shuddered as he cast his eyes over her long hair, fair skin, and elegant hands… he was having a nauseous feeling of déjà vu as he looked at her closed eyes, and those wires…

Sharply, he pulled away from the glass as if it had burnt him, memories rushing back. He tried to tell himself that these wires were different from the ones that Kaede had been hooked up to – they were serving a purpose this time.

Those wires were now uploading the data Minoru had prepared for the persocom into her hard drive. Accounts data, housekeeping data, basic AI, everyday functions… but most importantly, Minoru's especially created personality data.

_Running down corridors through,  
__Automatic doors,  
__Got to get to you,  
__Got to see this through_

When one of his other persocoms had arrived in his office to tell him that the data upload into this new persocom was almost complete, Minoru had dashed through the corridors of his enormous home to get to his lab, flashbacks hitting him square on the way.

As he stood now, gazing at the persocom, who seemed like nothing more than a sleeping Kaede, he thought of what she would be like when she 'woke up'. He had made an intricate piece of AI technology for this persocom. All of his other creations had personality data, of course – all persocoms did, in fact – but this one was so precious and delicate, the likes of which Minoru had never achieved before. For Minoru had created this AI with his sister's personality in mind. His hopes were for this persocom not just to look like Kaede, but _act_ like her too.

He wanted nothing more than for this persocom to fill the hole in his heart that Kaede had left behind.

_I see it in your eyes,  
__I see it in your eyes,  
__You'll be alright_

With a reassuring beep, the wires attached to the persocom detached themselves. Minoru tried to cast his thoughts aside, and turn them instead to his 'waking' persocom. She was nothing like those computers and monitors that Kaede had been connected to while she was in that hospital… she was amazing – a masterpiece, even - sheer beauty that Minoru could not deny. A whir was heard, followed by another beep, and she sat up slowly where she lay. Slowly but surely, her eyes opened, and her systems started to format. Minoru smiled faintly as light flashed through her eyes, confirming the system start. She had been a success.

_First night of your life,  
__Curled up on your own_

With gentle and graceful movements, the persocom lay back down, closing her eyes once more. If she were a human, she would be sleeping – but Minoru had programmed her to enter into standby mode as soon as she was configured.

Tears stung at Minoru's eyes as he looked upon her, not really seeing a robot in standby, but a living, breathing, sleeping Kaede – something he had longed to see for too long now.

_Looking at you now,  
__You would never know_

Her face… so realistic, life-like… down to every last detail, she was Kaede, and for a moment, Minoru let the thought of this being a persocom slip away from his mind. She was Kaede; through and through… his hand reached out towards the glass, as if reaching out to touch her, forgetting the window was there, separating them.

As his hand hit the glass with a thud, he pressed his palm firm against it, coming back to his senses. He sighed, casting his eyes to the floor.

"Sleep well… my Yuzuki."

_Looking at me now,  
__You would never know_

* * *

Emily Nash-Medlyn 

Wednesday 18th May 2005 – Sunday 22nd May 2005


End file.
